Electronic equipment, such as printers, computers, facsimile machines and the like, are used widely in offices and other organizations, such as schools and hospitals. Such valuable equipment, can be easily stolen from the premises, since they are portable and are very accessible. Thus, various security devices have been employed to fasten releasably a unit to be protected, to a supporting surface, such as a table top or desk.
Since it is desirable at times however, to remove such a unit from the supporting surface, the security device is openable and is locked in position during normal operation of the unit.
In the parent patent application, there is shown various techniques for locking the openable member of the security device. While such techniques have been satisfactorily employed for many applications, it would be highly desirable to have a fast access arrangement to facilitate the quick and easy removal of the unit from the security device. In this regard, in some organizations, there may be large numbers of computers or other such units being employed, and it may become desirable to service or replace all of them at the same time. Such an operation of removing the security equipment can be very time consuming and awkward for a person to remove the units from the security devices. Thus, a fast access locking arrangement would be highly desirable for such applications.
There have been different types and kinds of electronic fast access devices, such as key actuated input devices employing keypads, whereby security codes can be quickly input by an authorized person to unlock a protected unit. For example, electronic access for doors have been employed for many years. Such doors could be doors on safes or other security type areas, whereby a user can input the code to permit the door to be opened. In such an arrangement, however, the electronic circuits for the electronic access are usually powered by a battery which is mounted on the protected side of the door. Such an arrangement is not desirable for use with a table top security device since the battery can become drained to a point where it is unable to activate the circuits. In such a situation, there would be no possible way of obtaining ready access to replace the battery, unlike a safe where a mechanical lock can also be employed to gain access to the battery for replacement purposes.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved fast access electronic lock, which is normally deactivated and does not include a source of power. At the same time, such a fast access electronic locking system should also be highly sophisticated to prevent, or at least discourage greatly a professional thief who may be very knowledgeable as to electronic access systems.